France-Croatia created history by making it to the semi-finals together, this happened for the first time in last 32 years

In the 92-year history of the FIFA World Cup, such a coincidence has happened only once, when the finalist teams of the previous edition entered the semi-finals of the World Cup together or finished in the top four teams. Defending champions France and runners-up Croatia have both reached the semi-finals this time.

The last time this happened 32 years ago was when 1986 winners Argentina and runners-up West Germany reached the semi-finals together in the 1990 World Cup. Not only this, both these teams also made it to the finals, where West Germany, under the captaincy of the legendary Lothar Matthias, defeated Argentina led by the great Diego Maradona 1-0, not only to win the title but also to avenge the defeat of the 1986 final. Got it.

Challenge of repeating the achievement of 1990 in front of France-Croatia
It is no less surprising that this is only the second time in the history of the FIFA World Cup that the teams from the previous edition have reached the semi-finals together in the next World Cup. In such a situation, it will be interesting to see whether France and Croatia can achieve the feat of reaching the finals this time too.

The last time this happened was in 1990, when Argentina and West Germany reached the final. In the 1986 final, Argentina, led by Maradona, beat West Germany 3–2, but in the 1990 final, West Germany defeated Argentina thanks to a goal by Andreas Brehme.

So far only five teams have reached the final of two consecutive World Cups
At the same time, France and Croatia have a chance to become the sixth and seventh teams to reach the final of two consecutive World Cups. The five teams so far are Italy (1934, 1938 both times winner), Brazil (1958, 1962 both times winner), Netherlands (1974, 1978 both times runner up), West Germany (1982, 86 both times runner up, 1990 winner), Argentina ( 1986 winner, 1990 runner-up), Brazil (1994 winner, 1998 runner-up, 2002 winner) has achieved this feat. Among these, Brazil and Germany are the two teams that have reached the finals of three consecutive World Cups. The Netherlands is the only team to have reached the final twice in a row, but lost both times.